Community Purpose In Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching

It’s amazing that one state can have within it places that differ greatly in all aspects—people, surrounding, weather, and feeling. Zora Neale Hurston exemplifies this phenomenon in Their Eyes Were Watching God. There are a multitude of differences between Eatonville, FL and the Everglades; each place represents a certain theme or feeling to Janie (the main character) and their differences each contribute to the meaning of the novel as a whole.

In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston, the story opens with an intriguing extended metaphor: “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight…” In this quote, Zora Neale Hurston describes how far off a man’s dream can be. Within the first few paragraphs, we meet our main character, Janie Crawford as she’s walking back into town. Multiple people are looking on from the porch, wondering where Janie has been.

     Community is an important concern in both black and women's literature. The racist and patriarchal nature of American society, what Morrison refers to as the master narrative of our culture, places blacks and women and especially black women in a position of powerlessness and vulnerability. Communities serve as a protective buffer within which black women must function in order to survive. However both Hurston and Morrison identify and criticize how the patriarchal nature of the master narrative is present in black communities. The male-female hierarchy in the black community mirrors not only the patriarchy of the dominant white culture, but also the white-black

In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, a young woman travels through difficult life experiences in order to find herself. Hurston portrays the protagonist as an adventurous soul trapped in the binds of suppressing marriages. Janie experiences three different types of marriage learning from each one what she values most. From these marriages she learned she values love and respect, finally achieving them in her last marriage. Each new marriage brought something new to the table for Janie and no matter the situation or the outcome of the relationship Janie grew into her own independent individual because of it.

In this global era of evolving civilization, it is increasingly difficult to ignore the fascinating fact about love. Love is a feeling of intimacy, warmth, and attachment. Love is inevitable and it plays a vital role in human life as Janie uses her experience with the pear tree to compare each of her relationships, but it is not until Tea Cake that she finds “a bee to her bloom.” (106).

All novels contain symbolism in one shape or form, masking a deeper meaning beneath the words that are written on the page. Usually, there is an assortment of symbols disguised by a literal meaning that blend in with the scene. Symbols frequently come in the form of nature. Nature, generally being in the background of a scene, becomes more prominent when it is meant to be identified as a symbol. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the symbolism in nature is recurrent throughout the novel. It is used to indicate turning points and track the growth of the main character, Janie’s, coming-of-age. This is portrayed through the changing of the seasons and various correspondents. In this way, it can be seen that not all events affect Janie in the same way, leading her in one direction. In Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, seasonal symbols are used to target experiences in Janie’s life and how they affect her overall development into adulthood.

To many of Hurston’s peers, creating art during the Harlem Renaissance meant concentrating on the black experience and struggle with the Great Migration, which was “the movement of millions of black Americans from the rural South to the urban North” (Woolflm 1). Many of the migrants left their families and homes to escape the danger and violence pledged by white supremacists and typically a universal need to escape a “land soaked in much bad blood” (Woolflm 1) or to find work and opportunities in an increasingly industrialized urban setting. Hurston instead, saw black culture, in all its “geographical incarnations as persistently emerging and reinventing itself” (Robert 1). Therefore, when Janie spends the majority of Their Eyes Were Watching

Three women. Two out of the three were slaves for several decades and was able to obtain their freedom before the Civil War. The third woman, however, was never a slave since they were around after the Civil War. First, Sojourner Truth was born into slavery, later leaving her master in 1926 before she was legally emancipated in 1927 by the law of New York (Gates 245). Truth was also a Civil Rights and Women’s Rights activist (Gates 245). Next, Elizabeth Keckley, who was also born into slavery and stayed enslaved for over 30 years (Gates 365). After she had legally bought her and her son’s freedom, Keckley had established herself as a dressmaker and provide service to political figures, such as Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis (Gates 365). Lastly, is the author, Zora Neale Hurston, who had written Their Eyes Were Watching God and Mules and Men (Gates 1019). In Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the protagonist, Janie Crawford, undergoes a journey of self-discovery while overcoming obstacles. Truth was fighting for equal rights for women, while in Keckley’s text, she informs people of her years as a slave, the purchasing of her freedom, and her time at the White House. Therefore, between Truth and Janie there is an overlapping attitude of gender differences amongst men and women which can cause male dominance, whereas with Janie and Keckley, the overlap occurs in their struggle for freedom and the experience of being married then leaving one’s spouse.

In the crossroads between love and culture, politics and tradition, lies what it means to be human. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie Crawford desperately tries to find romance under the championed social realism of husband and wife at the time. At the beginning Janie’s Nanny, arranges for her to marry Logan killicks. An old farmer he owned a large sixty acres of land and was looking for someone to fill the place of his previous wife. However, Janie is not interested in Logan or marriage, her grandmother prescribed the life she wanted Janie to live, a stable life that was financially secure. The life Nanny and her daughter never had. Janie’s youthful notions about relationships leads her to strongly believe that marriage must involve love, and that Logan wants a helper on the farm not a lover or partner. Feeling miserable and lonely, she runs off with Joe Starks to Eatonville. After being spoiled with many fine items, and a distinct position in town, Janie realizes that he wants her as a trophy wife, to reassert his dominance over the townspeople. He treats her as a valuable possession, dictating what she says, wears, and restricting her social life. Once he dies she for once gains total freedom to do as she pleases, becoming financially independent and toppled by suitors. She then meets fun-loving young Vergible Woods who goes by the nickname “Tea Cake”. At first Janie is uncertain of his intentions, as she is wealthy and older, but

     “’…but she don’t seem to mind at all. Reckon dey understand one ‘nother.’” A woman’s search for her own free will to escape the chains of other people in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God.

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston portrays the religion of black people as a form of identity. Each individual in the black society Hurston has created worships a different God. But all members of her society find their identities by being able to believe in a God, spiritual or other. Grandma’s worship of Jesus and the “Good Lawd,” Joe Starks’ worship of himself, Mrs. Turner’s worship of white characteristics, and Janie’s worship of love, all stem from a lack of jurisdiction in the society they inhabit. All these Gods represent a need for something to believe in and work for: an ideal, which they wish to achieve, to aspire to. Each individual character is thus

Introduction: Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God" intricately navigates the journey of Janie Crawford, a woman in search of self-fulfillment amidst the constraints of societal expectations and the dynamics of her community. Set against the backdrop of the Jim Crow South, Hurston's novel explores themes of race, gender, and autonomy, presenting a nuanced portrayal of Janie's quest for identity and belonging. Concession: Within the novel, Hurston presents a multifaceted depiction of community, acknowledging both its nurturing aspects and its potential for oppression. While Janie finds solace and support within her community at times, particularly through her friendships with figures like Pheoby Watson, she also encounters limitations

In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the men in Janie’s life, while all people of color, hold varying amounts of power and privilege over her on the sole basis of being an man in the late 1930’s. Logan, Jody, and Tea Cake’s constant subjugation, infantilization, and general patronization of Janie throughout the novel stem from this perceived better-ness. While modern men can no longer get away with marital abuse, women still suffer oppression at the hands of men more subtle micro-aggressions in everyday life that take the form of sexual objectification , internalized misogyny, stereotyping, and body policing, as displayed all though the novel. Janie is constantly showered with undesirable male attention.

During the 1930s black women were expected to meet the obligation of becoming a housewife. While the man was expected to be the sole provider of the household, if a black woman ever challenged this type of ideology they would be met with severe criticism. Within the novel their Eyes Were Watching by Hurston men and women have very different roles from each other. Black women are often viewed as the weaker sex and often defined by the person who they are married to. Through the novel Hurston confronts the concept that black women live by standards placed by men, they impose these standards by objectifying them, then silencing their voice and constantly belittling them to remain in control. As the reader goes further into the novel they begin to understand the consequences of challenging society, gender differences/functions, and the criticism from women as well.

Critical thinking is a vital task that must be done in our everyday lives. In “Becoming a Critic Of Your Thinking” found at criticalthinking.org, Dr. Linda Elder and Dr. Richard Paul explain critical thinking as “the disciplined art of ensuring that you use the best thinking you are capable of in any set of circumstances”. Even tough there are many different types of methods to achieve a better quality of critical thinking, Dr. Elder and Dr. Paul discuss four specific ones in the article. All strategies, however, force you to put yourself in an uncomfortable and difficult position to develop a better quality of thinking.